Monday, July 12, 2010

“Record heat wave in the US that’s part of a larger picture of early summer temperatures that are the warmest on record, which is part of a larger picture of a globe that is running warmer than ever before…”

There you go. It's hot in Philadelphia, therefore the planet is warming.

Widespread cloud and persistent rainfall has kept temperatures down right across Queensland [Australia].

Longreach, in the Central West, received persistent rain from Tuesday evening, dropping the temperatures by about four degrees. The temperature then barely moved yesterday, reaching a maximum of 11 degrees; 12 degrees below the long-term average and the coldest July day in 44 years of records.Isisford, further south, was even colder, getting to just 10 degrees. This was the town's chilliest day since before records began in 1913, almost a century ago.

Some locations in the Maranoa and Darling Downs didn't even make it to 10 degrees. This includes Charleville, Injune, St George and Inglewood.

Residents of Brisbane also experienced the cardigan-worthy weather. The city topped at 17 degrees, three below average. [emphasis mine]

Incumbent Washington politicians have all the advantages. Including the ability to raise mountains of cash from lobbyists who (a) have the dough to spend, and (b) are looking to curry favor with "a sure thing." 5th District Congressman Tom Perriello, in that regard, is no different from the rest of them:

Perriello accumulates impressive haul
By Alex Isenstadt, Politico

Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello will report Monday that he has raised over $660,000 in second quarter funds — a showing of fundraising strength that is certain to provide him with a substantial financial edge over GOP rival Robert Hurt heading into the fall campaign season.

Perriello has $1.7 million in cash on hand, and has raised nearly $2.3 million over the course of his re-election campaign, according to fundraising totals provided to POLITICO. Perriello's second quarter takeaway is his largest this cycle.

The freshman Democrat's impressive haul underscores the daunting financial disadvantage confronting Hurt, who spent over $380,000 during a crowded and divisive Republican Party primary.

Hurt's campaign, which declined to reveal its second quarter figures, had just $121,000 in the bank as of May 19. [link]

This is why you see Perriello running radio, internet, and TV spots like crazy. He can. And needs to.

Too bad his message is flawed. He's touting his ability effort to bring jobs to Southside Virginia. What with the Depression that has come crashing down on communities throughout the God-forsaken part of the Commonwealth, that ain't gonna fly. In fact, it's laughable. Which, I'll bet wasn't the reaction that this kid expected to garner.

Anyway, here's breaking news: Another entrenched Washington politician is up to his eyeballs in lobbyist money. Stop the presses.

This is almost humorous. Remember those global warming "scientists" who were caught colluding behind closed doors to skew the information flow to the public, block transfer of data to other scientists who wanted to corroborate their findings, and who "hid the decline" in Climategate? Well, it appears they've learned nothing from the scandal.

They still want to keep you in the dark and work their magic in isolation apart from the outside world:

UN's IPCC Tells Scientists To 'Keep A Distance From The Media'
By Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change has instructed all 831 researchers contributing to the organization's next round of assessments to "keep a distance from the media."

Such was disseminated in a July 5 letter from IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri which has already garnered some criticism from folks on both sides of the anthropogenic global warming debate.

IPCC contributor Edward R. Carr, an associate professor of geography at the University of South Carolina who wrote Friday:

"Part of the problem for the IPCC is a perceived lack of openness - that something is going on behind closed doors that cannot be trusted. This, in the end, was at the heart of the 'climategate' circus - a recent report has exonerated all of the scientists implicated, but some people still believe that there is something sinister going on.

"There is an easy solution to this - complete openness. I've worked on global assessments before, and the science is sound. I've been quite critical of the way in which one of the reports was framed, but the science is solid and the conclusions are more refined than ever. Showing people how this process works, and what we do exactly, would go a long way toward getting everyone on the same page with regard to global environmental change, and how we might best address it. [link]

The only problem with this reasoning is in the fact that when open analysis is done on the temperature data these guys have collected over the years takes place, many, many questions about the conclusions drawn, the predictions made, and even about the validity of the data arise. That's why they prefer to operate in seclusion. No questions. No problems.

So they've learned nothing from the Climategate debacle. Expect more of the same. With trumpets blaring and "reporters" worshiping. Just don't look at the man behind that curtain ...